Mercedes explains the strategy call and the missed victory
F1's current dominant force Mercedes arrived at the Barcelona‑Catalunya Grand Prix with the pace to win, the track position to control the race, and both drivers executing cleanly.
Yet they left with only second place and a retirement — a result shaped by strategy constraints, tyre limitations, and a decisive Virtual Safety Car that swung the race away from them.
George Russell launched perfectly from pole, while Andrea Kimi Antonelli settled into third. Early on, it became clear that Lewis Hamilton’s aggressive three‑stop strategy would force Mercedes into a difficult decision: cover the Ferrari or commit to their own plan. They chose the latter, sticking to a two‑stop approach that simulations continued to show as optimal.
But as Trackside Engineering Director Andrew Shovlin explained, the race evolved in ways that made that choice increasingly costly: “Despite getting a car on the podium, we leave Barcelona with a feeling of disappointment. We were not fast enough today and know that we can't afford to be retiring with a reliability issue.”
Shovlin noted that the opening phase went as expected: “Both cars got off the line well despite being on the Medium compound and the first stint ran broadly to plan.
"Lewis (Hamilton) triggered the stops early and as we had to cover, that made a three‑stop a little more attractive. Our simulations were still showing that a two‑stop was the optimum strategy though.”
The second stint exposed the limits of Mercedes’ pace relative to Hamilton: “Through the second stint, we didn't have the pace to build a sufficient gap to Lewis to be able to cover his three‑stop with George, so we elected to commit to the two‑stop to keep track position.”
Hamilton’s speed — and Mercedes’ own intra‑team battle — compounded the problem: “Lewis' pace on that third stint was strong, and we were losing a bit with backmarkers, then more time with our two cars interacting.”
The decisive moment came when Lando Norris stopped on lap 35, forcing Mercedes to react: “When Lando (Norris) stopped on lap 35, we had to cover with both shortly after, which ultimately created the situation where Lewis was able to benefit from the Virtual Safety Car and come out in front rather than having to overtake on track.”
From there, Hamilton was gone — and Mercedes’ hopes of a double podium evaporated when Antonelli’s power unit failed just moments after he overtook Russell for second.
Shovlin acknowledged the scale of the setback: “We'll be working hard to understand why Kimi's car stopped and similarly working out where we can find a bit more pace, as ultimately, we lacked the speed to control the race and that's what cost us the win.”
